Community – Somewhere out where dreams come true
I was so happy to see Shirley actually get some screen time this week. I love her, but she’s rarely used for anything more than patting people on the arm reassuringly and saying, “That’s nice.” But this week we got to hear a little bit more about her dream of starting an online brownie company, although I’m still a little unclear as to exactly how it’s going to be the “Napster of brownies.”
It was also fun to see her and Pierce have a storyline together and for him to not be completely creepy. I’ve been worried that they were making Pierce into a one-dimensional buffoon, since he’s pretty much failed at everything he’s attempted on the show, but this episode really shows that he at least knows something.
Ratings Clack – Should FOX switch Fringe and Lie To Me?
After the dramatic entrance of V last week, there were no similar big splash stories to lead things off this week. Then, as I was perusing the year-ago numbers, something occurred to me. It’s quite possible that FOX could improve both Monday and Thursday at 9:00 if they swapped Fringe and Lie To Me. If you look back to the initial Fringe run, it had a lot of success following House. In fact, while the House numbers are virtually unchanged from Tuesday to Monday, Fringe was holding much more of the House audience on Tuesday than Lie To Me currently is on Monday.
Example:
11/18/08: House (13.03m/5.5), Fringe (9.36m/4.2)
11/09/09: House (13.31m/5.3), Lie To Me (7.41m/3)
And that was against very similar competition. Both faced DWTS on ABC, which was pretty much a wash. NBC was greatly improved against Fringe with Biggest Loser (7.84m/3.3), as opposed to Trauma (5.35m/1.8). And CBS was mixed, with The Mentalist (15.83m/3.5) trailing the Men/Big Bang hour (13.62m/4.6) in the demo.
Now we look at where we are this season. Fringe did manage something of a rebound this week, finishing with (5.91m/2.2) on Thursday. That’s still a distant fourth place, and should find the show on the hot seat at the end of the season. It would, obviously, do better on Monday following House. The question is, would it do better than the (7.41m/3) that Lie To Me is currently offering? I think it would.
On the other side of that coin, while I’m not quite as confident about the move of Lie To Me to Thursday, I do still see the potential for it to outperform the current Fringe numbers. That bar has been set, after all, rather low. It would likely take a hit in the move, but the end result would be that Thursday at 9:00 is stronger as well. Just something to think about. The usual numbers junk is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Community – Abed can see the future
Sometimes Community gets so meta it makes my head spin. Ever since the pilot, Community has seemed very aware of the fact that it is a television comedy, complete with familiar sitcom characters. In this episode, Abed (who is the character who breaks down the fourth wall on a regular basis) basically says, “You guys, we are nothing more than tried and true archetypes molded and evolved on sitcoms over the past 50 years. Let me show u it.”
So in addition to seeing that Abed can predict everything his fellow characters say and do, we have Chevy Chase doing what Chevy Chase does best: pratfalls. Pratfalls made him famous, so the only thing surprising about having him fall over his drum kit in this episode is that it took them so long to do it.
Ratings Clack – V gets off to a great start
The World Series was the big ratings winner last week, but with New York involved, everyone kind of expected that, right? What nobody expected — most notably ABC — was the success of the V premiere. The numbers weren’t just good. It was the highest rated scripted program on the network, topping the Housewives and Grey’s. Even better, the V demo rating was the highest for a scripted show on any of the networks. Someone at ABC has to be kicking themselves for only ordering four episodes of V, while they continue to crank out more Hanks than they know what to do with. Read the rest of this entry »
Quotation Marks – Bilarious, bike-curious, and bagpiping
I have missed the Supernatural boat. Everyone tells me what a great show it is, but I’ve never taken the time. If this week’s lead quote is any indication, I sure am missing out. The week before the start of November Sweeps also brings us some good quotes from Modern Family and Community. Next week, however, I promise the return of Glee!
Supernatural
“You gotta calm down.” — Sam
“Calm down? I’m wearing sunglasses at night!! You know who does that? No talent douche bags! I hate this game! I hate that we’re in a procedural cop show and you want to know to know why … because I hate procedural cop shows! There’s like 300 of them on television and they’re all the freaking same. It’s, ‘Oh, plane crashed here.’ Oh shut up!” — Dean
Community – Where are these people going to go?
Way to go, Julia. You write about how great the episode endings with Abed and Troy are, and Community stops doing them. As much as I did enjoy the rap at the end, it really just wasn’t the same. Other than that, I loved this week’s episode, although it brings up a worrisome point for me: where are these people going to go?
Yes, that’s a concern in any school-based series, but Community faces some challenges that others don’t. If this were a group of high school students, they could all randomly decide to stay in town and go to college together, as has been the way for years, from Saved by the Bell’s UC Berkeley (CAL) to Gossip Girl’s NYU. If it were a regular college show, new castmembers could be rotated in to pick up the slack after original ones graduated. However, Community is a little bit more difficult– and this week’s episode highlights that difficulty.
Troy and Abed: the best BFF ever
This is going to come out wrong, but I’m going to say it anyway: my favorite part of Community is always the end. Not because I don’t love the show, because I totally, totally do. I think this show is freaking awesome. But, easily, the best 38 seconds of my week, every week is the tag at the end of each episode with Abed (played by Danny Pudi) and Troy (played by Donald Glover).
I’m not sure what exactly drew Troy and Abed together character-wise. After all, they’re hardly shown together during the actual show, and they couldn’t be more different. Troy was the popular kid in high school, and Abed is what I would refer to euphemistically as “socially inept.” Whatever made them bond, I’m glad it worked, because how else would we have rapping in Spanish, prank PA announcements or conversations with Batman about turning into a doughnut?
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